This first leg turned out to down following a disused railway line, although unlike yesterday, it was pretty overgrown in places. I guess there isn’t a whole lot of traffic out this way. Good thing we both really enjoy cycling through stinging nettles. Oh yes. Fun times ahead. And I haven’t had breakfast yet. Or even a coffee.

I’m sure there was view like this a day or so ago, wasn’t there? All these ruins atop coastal cliffs are blurring into one another.

Breakfast turned out to be pretty good. A properly unhealthy full breakfast, with lots of coffee. It’s not like we had much else to do while we waited for Micha’s bike to be sorted out. Might as well enjoy the downtime right?

A pirate ship! It just looks like a toy ship as it’s a long way away. But it’s not a toy ship. It’s a proper big ship. A proper big pirate ship!

Getting out of Scarborough is a bit confusing, and Google Maps on my phone appears to be having fun directing us around busy pedestrian-only shopping streets, or towards busy A roads. I know the national cycle route is around here somewhere? Luckily, we spot some German cyclists who are also heading south, and we decide to follow them. They seem a lot more organised than we are.

The plan is a good one, and we make nice progress out into the countryside. It isn’t long until I find the perfect place to stop for coffee and cake:

I wasn’t expecting to find a distillery down here. I also hadn’t realised that we were still in Yorkshire. We’re still in Yorkshire? We’ve been in Yorkshire for days. It’s going to take ages to get to Essex. England is larger than I thought. Good thing there are some nice looking cakes to eat here.

After the distillery, there was one last hill, and then, that was that. I think it’s all (relatively) flat from here on.

We’re on a road to nowhereCome on insideTaking that ride to nowhereWe’ll take that rideI’m feeling okay this morningAnd you knowWe’re on the road to paradiseHere we go, here we go Waiting..

It feels like we’re making good time, the weather is near perfect and the roads are traffic-free. The only holdups are the odd level crossing. Seems like a nice afternoon for a quiet beer at a village pub. Sadly, it seems like this isn’t going to work, as all the village pubs are closed. We eventually make do with eating an apple outside of a village pub. It’s not really the same.

All very scenic. Just a shame it isn’t open.

We get to our campsite at Beverley more or less on time (not counting getting a little lost in the suburbs to the south of the city and completely missing the cycle path. Again). After getting the tent pitched, we treat ourselves to a taxi into town to a surprisingly good Italian restaurant. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of Beverley before, but it’s a really nice town. The Minster is quite impressive too.

The plan was to get up and on the road nice and early: our aim was to get to Whitby and we were a little concerned about how far away it was. We had really expected to get in to Durham around mid afternoon yesterday, rather than 8pm! The route I had mapped out was mostly following a cycle route down to Middlesbourgh, and we had no idea if it would be smooth riding, or broken path that would ruin our tyres.

Talking about tyres… yes, that early start didn’t happen as Micha had another flat. 😦

Woke up the tent with only the mildest of hangovers. The advantage of camping is it’s a lot easier to get and moving early in the morning. Which we probably should be doing. When we cut out the detour through the Northumberland National Park, the plan was that this would cut the distance from Berwick to Durham to around 90 miles over two days, leaving a lot more time for relaxing. Sadly, this seems to be completely unrealistic as yesterday was over 55miles, and today is looking like it will be over 60. Well, onwards! To breakfast.

Our original plan had been to visit Holy Island, then cycle inland a little through a little of Northumberland National Park. By now, we were starting to realise that all our mile estimates were a little low, as cycling paths tend to less direct than A roads. Just the ride to Holy Island and back would take at least an hour on its own anyway. So, we decided to skip the detour inland and take a straighter route south that would leave enough time to visit the island.

An early (very early) morning start as the sleeper train pulls into Edinburgh Waverly first thing in the morning. We get the bikes unloaded and head up in to the old down to meet Louisa for breakfast at one of my old favourite cafes. I miss my days living in Edinburgh at working at the Informatics Forum.

Still, we can’t hang about too long: we have to cycle to England today. Sounds like a long way when it’s put like that doesn’t it. Eeek.

I didn’t manage to get out on the bike last year (2017), and as Moz was busy with impending mini-Moz, a trip this year was looking pretty unlikely until Micha suggested visiting from America. After looking at the map for a bit, we relucantly decided that getting to the Scottish islands from Essex would be a little tricky (and expensive) , and settled on a route along the South coast from Cornwall to my new home in Colchester. The plan was to take the overnight train from London to Penzance, as the sleeper trains give you more time to board, sort out putting the bikes somewhere secure, etc. Sadly, this plan was quickly dismissed as GWR didn’t have any tickets (and possible no actual trains), so we turned to Scotrail for plan B: cycle to London, take the Caledonian Sleeper to Edinburgh, then cycle home!

Ok, two years later and I never did finish writing this up! As Micha is due to arrive tomorrow morning for our 2018 trip (Edinburgh -> Colchester), I thought it might be a good idea to finally finish off this last chapter of the 2016 trip.

Friday 27th May

After climbing up a mountain on our “day off”, we took it a little easier today and made 56miles to Island Pond in Brighton, Essex (Vermont). American place names are amusing.

We were in the back half of the trip so as usual, I’m not bothering to stop and take as many photographs.